What Happened to Kerouac? (1985)

What Happened To Kerouac? is a lively and revealing investigation into the personal history and creative process of Jack Kerouac – father of the Beat Generation, author of "On The Road" and pivotal figure of the fifties countercultural revolution. This portrait shows us what happened when fame and notoriety were thrust upon an essentially reticent man whose influence is still felt all over the world.

Features Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William Burroughs, Steve Allen, William Buckley, Charlie Parker, Neal Cassady, Carolyn Cassady, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure and Gary Snyder

Directed by Richard Lerner & Lewis MacAdams
Produced by Richard Lerner
Music by Thelonious Monk

Kerouac Raw ...

Not much exists in the way of documentaries about the father of the Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac. But it's not for a lack of interest for sure. I think the bulk of people that have seen this may have either rented it from a library or have seen it re-run on your local PBS channel. The quality of the film doesn't lend itself to the digital age very well, as the presentation of the interviews and the facts about the life of one of America's greatest writers is handled in a very film-school type of fashion.

I don't mean to denigrate this documentary at all with that last statement, but the quality of the presentation is just as rough as the actual archive footage. Only the presentation can be weighed in the sense of filmmaking, but in truth it is what it is. It's not slick, it's not polished, it's not even artful like the recent Bukowski Documentary, but it is fascinating, intelligent, absorbing and powerful to watch.

As most may know, Jack Kerouac drank himself into the grave in the late sixties, for reasons known and unknown. The weight he carried was a significant one that pushed him as deep into himself as he could go until his inner body could no longer sustain him. A lot of the troubled history of Kerouac is fleshed out as well as his stomping grounds, his old lovers, his daughter, some of his friends and other contemporaries.

The interview with Gregory Corso is a fascinating one to say the least and one can understand why the man decided to turn to teaching literature. The way he tells the stories and the stories themselves are powerful in his hands as he speaks highly and respectfully of Kerouac and in way in which a true friend who never left his side would.

This is a very touching and personal, albeit rough, look into the life and times of one of America's most compelling writers of the last age. While you may complain about the unmastered archive footage, you'll be amazed at the segment with Steve Allen, the interview with William F. Buckley, where Jack is drunk on air, and so on.

This is a very enjoyable and well worth the time spent.

... ... November 12, 2008

Interesting Man Awful Documentary

No one seems to mention how awful shot and Produced this Documentary is. From the lighting to the boring and overly long interviews this is a documentary in need of some good editing and a director who knows something about making an interesting film. It appears the director has no idea how to shoot an interesting and decent looking documentary. Just pointing a camera at poorly lit people and letting them ramble on with no editing does not make for an interesting film. It is said that a great teacher can bring alive even the most boring subject matter and vice versa. This film takes an interesting man and a fascinating time and make it into a complete snoozefest. November 2, 2008

I'll go on the road again

I'm not a fan of Jack Kerouac. . .yet.

I was disappointed, and I tried hard not to be, reading "On the Road". I found myself agreeing, and I tried hard not to, with Truman Capote who said Kerouac didn't write, he typed.

This film has made me give Kerouac another chance. (Will it be "Big Sur" or "Doctor Sax" or "Tristessa"?) This excellent documentary has convinced me that Kerouac was more than a drunk (Even though one of the most interesting scenes has a drunken Kerouac telling William F. Buckley to hurry the question up.) and more than a typist (There were scenes where excerpts of Kerouac's stuff--other than "On the Road"--were read during photo montages, first, of big city life and, later, of Lowell, MA.)

The film also shows how literate, articulate, and compassionate these original beatniks were. How can one listen to Allen Ginsberg here and not be impressed with his warmth and his storytelling, regardless of what one thinks of his persona or his poetry? These beatniks were not just a group of young adults in the 1940's fueled by chemicals and hormones. There really was (perhaps only at times) a seeking for spirit and beauty and truth.

May I correctly select, from Kerouac's other works, my next beat experience.
June 17, 2008

WOW! Great snapshot of the Beat Generation

Of course there was no generation just a handful of writers and poets who all knew each other. After reading all the books about Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady and reading all the books written by Jack, Jan Kerouac, Carolyn Cassady, and Ann Charters I finally discover this little gem of a documentry. It's the first time that I've ever seen Jan Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Carolyn Cassady or William Burroughs on film. What a treat. If you don't know these people you'll probably be bored to death. But if you're a beat generation nut like myself, this is a real gem. Don't miss it. February 27, 2008

What Not To Watch On A Late Night In Japan

I slipped this 1986 production in my DVD player a couple of nights ago after the wife and kids had fallen asleep, and while the trains to and from Tokyo roared by a hop skip and a jump away, and things were high-rise and pretty much all about the future outside my midnight window, I took a trip back in time to c. 1959 America. The first major point I want to make about this DVD is that it contains a young, electrifyingly handsome Kerouac doing his famous reading from On the Road. If this DVD contained only that clip, it would be worth the price. In fact, as the show proceeded, I found myself wishing that this clip was the only thing on the DVD, with options on speeding it up, slowing it down, listening only to the audio, perhaps having it simultaneously translated into Japanese (for friends who might drop by), French, Italian, and--what the heck--Mandarin too. The rest of the DVD outside of cameo appearances by a well-embalmed Huncke, an articulate Ann Charters, a righteous Diane di Prima, a super sound-byte by Creeley, an impressive Carolyn Cassady, a spookily laconic Burroughs, and a prim discussion by Snyder, was rather depressing. We see Neal Cassady a tick after his prime saying little but saying it quickly, a post-stroke Allen Ginsberg getting sly revenge on Jack's mother, and the trickster antics of Gregory Corso, gumming his words like an old drunk in your home-town bar, holding forth like (see previous), urged on to greater mental triangulations by the off-screen producer, and finally making a weird kind of sense. Joyce Johnson reminisces about Jack on the eve of his On The Road fame. One of Jack's wives tells it like it was (she couldn't deal with dirty bathtubs, so she went home), and the secret star of the show--Jack's wonderfully charismatic daughter Jan--also a writer--and beautiful--but doomed to die young--tells about compairing hand sizes with her pixilated dad while he watched the Beverly Hillbillies on television. Which brings up the painful parts of the video--almost as painful to me as watching a drunk Bukowski trying to kick his girlfriend in another DVD I saw recently--Jack being stupid on the William F. Buckley show, and Buckley egging him on, complete with snaky asides while a young, earnest Ed Sanders sits like an angel two seats down and is never really allowed to say much of anything. Jack comes across as a bully reeking of sweat and urine, hopeless, a soon-to-die wreck of what he was in the other clip. Gregory Corso at last fills the screen like the Fool in King Lear, however--wiser than his masters and mistresses--to really spell it out: success got Kerouac. All those people who wanted to tear off a piece of him for a souvenir, or buy him a gun to shoot himself with so they could say they'd done the deed later in case the camera crews came around, or buy him a drink, which was essentially the same thing as a gun--to kill his already gone beauty even more than it had been done in by much hard-living, drugs and many toasts to the moon. Yes, I was mighty depressed approx. 90 minutes later when the credits started to roll and Thelonious Monk (who also died young) began to play. But this was Japan in the year 2007, and out the window the Future was winking red and yellow lights. September 11, 2007

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